


Words Can't Describe

by Welfycat



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-07
Updated: 2011-05-07
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spencer discovers that the internet isn't all email and wikipedia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Can't Describe

**Author's Note:**

> Author Notes: Inspired by [this](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/5/4/) Penny Arcade comic.

Derek woke up as he rolled over, his eyes slipping open as he moved into the empty space that was cold and vacant. For a moment he thought he was in a hotel room, off on a case in some unknown city in some faraway state, but he could see the light from the street outlining the edges of his curtains and the sheets beneath his skin were too familiar. But if he wasn't on a case and it wasn't one of Spencer's nights that he chose to spend in his own apartment - Derek could see Spencer's go bag sitting right next to his own on the edge of the dresser - and Spencer wasn't in bed, that meant that Spencer had either woken from a nightmare and slipped out without Derek waking up or he had gotten distracted and hadn't come to bed at all. Derek sat up and looked at the alarm clock, it was nearly three in the morning and Derek was betting that Spencer had gotten wrapped up in a research project even after his 'I'll be there in five minutes' when Derek had left for the bedroom.

Walking to the door, Derek found Clooney lying in the doorway and bent down to scratch behind his ears. Clooney gave a low pitched whine, shaking his head toward the living room. "I know, I'll go get him," Derek said. He knew that Clooney didn't like to sleep until all of the occupants of the house were either tucked away in bed or sitting together in the living room.

Derek rubbed at his eyes, he must have been more tired than he'd thought; usually he would have waited for about thirty minutes before going and dragging Spencer away from whatever project had caught his attention, but he'd apparently fallen asleep without even making it that long. He walked into the living room and paused in the doorway. Spencer was sitting in Derek's desk chair, his long legs drawn up so his ankles were crossed and his knees poking out by his elbows. The light from Derek's laptop was the only light in the room, illuminating Spencer's face. It was an expression that Derek recognized from Spencer examining bodies and crime scene photos; thoughtful and studious with an underlying current of suppressed distress and concern.

He made his way over to Spencer and sat down on the arm of the couch so that he was facing Spencer's side. Clooney had followed him and settled down between them on the floor.

After a minute or so, Spencer turned his head and looked at Derek like he wasn't expecting to see him. "Did I wake you up?"

Derek shook his head, because technically it had been the lack of Spencer's presence that had woke him, and reached out and set his hand next to Spencer's. When Spencer looked at it but shifted away slightly instead of placing his hand on Derek's, Derek knew that something was bothering him. "Whatcha looking at?"

Spencer paused again, but reached and turned the laptop so that Derek could see the screen. Usually Spencer stuck strictly to book and paper research, so it was a little surprising to find him hunched over the laptop to begin with. Derek leaned forward so that he could get a better look before he immediately leaned back again. "Spencer, what is, that?" he asked, unable to bring himself to actually describe what he was seeing. He wasn't sure he actually had words to describe the drawing that was displayed in front of him and considering the things that he had to come up with words to describe in some of the case reports he'd written, that was saying something.

Leaning in, Spencer stared at the image again. "Well, I think it's supposed to be a representation of the female body with-"

"Stop, I didn't mean that." Derek leaned forward and pulled the laptop toward him, finding dozens of open tabs in the browser. He started clicking back through them, finding picture after picture of things that had either been drawn or photo manipulated; all of which were in some form or another outright disturbing. "Why are you looking at this? How did you even get here?" he looked up at the url in the address bar, unable to imagine how Spencer, who rarely used the internet for much more than checking his work email, wound up in such a place.

"Do you remember the debate I got into with Garcia about the Star Trek trivia question? About Amok Time?" Spencer asked, not looking away from where Derek was still flipping back through the tabs.

"I remember," Derek said cautiously, having only received two lengthy explanations on the subject as to why both Garcia and Spencer were each absolutely right.

"Well, I was looking up proof so that I could show her, because my copy of the second season dvds hasn't arrived yet. And, well, I was reading on a few of the sites but I was looking for a specific screen capture or even a video clip. So I used the google image search and somehow wound up," Spencer shrugged as Derek finally made it back to Spencer's original tab in the browser, where he had 'Spock and Kirk on Vulcan in Amok Time' typed innocently into the search engine.

"For almost five hours?" Derek asked incredulously.

"Well, from a psychological standpoint, it's actually quite fascinating. Though, it makes me wonder if we shouldn't be looking at some of these people. A lot of it falls into criteria we would look at when looking for unsubs and it's just all right there. I mean, the attitudes toward violence and sexuality alone are highly concerning and that's just scratching the surface. There are a few pieces that are eerily like some of the examples of that are shown from research samples of art therapy that's performed in facilities for criminals with mental illness." Spencer turned to Derek, his eyes wide with worry.

Derek sighed and closed the browser window, clicking on the quit button when it prompted him that he had 46 tabs open. "It's just the internet, Spencer. If people are managing their imagination and impulses through art and creativity, all the better for them. You know as well as I do that almost none of those people will ever hurt anyone."

Spencer nodded and blinked in the sudden darkness when Derek turned off the laptop. "Just when I thought that I understood the internet I find something that changes my perception completely."

Derek smiled and felt Spencer's hand reach out and wrap around his. "Yeah, I think that's kind of the way the internet works. Come on, you can prove your Star Trek prowess to Garcia in the morning."

"Oh, I never did find the video I was looking for," Spencer paused, halfway standing up.

Clooney was already on his feet and winding himself between and through Derek and Spencer's legs. "Tomorrow, the internet will still be there in the morning," Derek insisted as he nudged Clooney forward and tugged Spencer the rest of the way to his feet.

"I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing," Spencer admitted with a yawn as they walked back into the bedroom.

Derek laughed. "You and me both."


End file.
